


Blue Christmas

by melancholymango



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Getting Together, Holidays, Homesick Lance (Voltron), M/M, Mistletoe, Mutual Pining, Sharing Body Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 19:09:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13173348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melancholymango/pseuds/melancholymango
Summary: “Look, it’s the Keith and Lance version of a snow angel!” Pidge said, pointing toward the horrifying imprint of limbs and faces left in the snow where they’d been fighting. Lance stifled a laugh, leaning his weight heavier against Keith, still trying to catch his breath.“Snow demon, no doubt.” Matt suggested, staring critically toward the mess.--The team decides to celebrate the holiday season in space as nostalgia gets the better of them, but reflecting on the past hurts Lance more than it helps and Keith doesn't have any memories to reflect on. AKA the one where Keith and Lance hate the holidays together, only to realize that they were actually celebrating all along in their own Keith and Lance way.





	Blue Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jj_writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jj_writes/gifts).



> Hello!! This is a (slightly) late secret santa gift to my good pal JJ, who brought up the idea of Keith and Lance getting carried away after getting caught under the mistletoe. I took the idea and ran with it, now here we are almost 20k words of pining later. Hope you enjoy!!

Lance gripped the controls of his lion, surveying the bleak landscape below them. There was no sign of life to be seen, just an endless vast stretch of white fields. Nothing interrupted the smooth planes of snow, not a single hill nor tree. It looked incredibly desolate and uneventful, but Lance knew better than to let his guard down by now.

The entire team waited patiently, hovering above the surface in their lions as they listened to Coran’s debriefing.

“Alright, there seems to be a water-based substance covering the surface of this planet. It’s one of the coldest atmospheres we’ve been in, but your suits should be able to handle the difference in temperature for short periods of time without any issues. Matt and I are running a few more tests from the castleship, so we recommend staying in your lions until we know for certain that it’s-”

“Snow!” Pidge interrupted in a screech, diving their lion even closer to the planet’s surface. Lance grit his teeth worriedly, waiting on one of the more serious members of the team to try and deter them. It certainly looked like snow, but there was no telling what chemicals it was actually composed of. Coran was running a scan right now, surely it wouldn’t take that long to wait for him to finish.

Pidge hovered just barely above the surface, shouting into the comms. “Matt, get down here! I’m gonna kick your ass at building a fort!”

“Pidge, you really shouldn’t-” Shiro started to say, though he didn’t sound reprimanding as much as cautious himself. He was no doubt watching them closely from the bay window on the castleship, while Matt and Coran worked the science aspect of running home base.

“Our suits will protect us from any toxins in the air, Shiro.” Pidge insisted, their voice going higher like it always did when they were begging for something. Silence followed, the other paladins staying suspiciously quiet on the matter. Perhaps they were all as entranced with the new planet as Pidge seemed to be. “Come on, please? Coran?”

“It does seem to be your regular run-of-the-mill Earth snow, Coran.” Matt reported back suddenly, starting to sound excited himself despite his best efforts to stay cool. Lance breathed a sigh of relief and started to steer Blue down, noticing that all of the other paladins were doing the same.

“Alright, make sure to keep your helmets on.” Shiro reminded them all formally, though the hint of a smile was almost detectable in his voice. A moment passed before he let out a breathy fond little laugh, the noise stifled by their communicators. “Matt’s coming down in a pod, I just caught him tripping over himself in his rush to get to the loading bay.”

“Yes!” Pidge shouted triumphantly, the first to land their lion on the ground. They were out of Green’s mouth within seconds, launching out into the fluffy cold snow. The others weren’t far behind, though Lance stayed standing hesitantly on the ramp, wary of stepping into the snow just yet. Hunk and Allura on the other hand, charged forward to meet Pidge in the fray.

They made it about halfway before a snowball hurtled through the air and hit the visor of Hunk’s helmet at full force. “Eat this, Hunk!”

“Hey!” Hunk shouted in offense, diving to hide behind Allura. Oblivious to the fight almost entirely, she kneeled in the snow and began to smooth her gloved hands over the surface. She let out a squeal of delight, beginning to lump it together into a pile.

“What is this magical substance?!” She shouted gleefully, picking up a pile and throwing it behind her at Hunk. He let out a disgruntled noise and collapsed into the snow, laughing all the while. 

Lance smiled to himself as he watched them messing around, realizing just how long it’d been since they’d taken a break. He started to lower himself down, planning to sit on the ramp of his lion and watch the snowball fight take place, when a shiver of movement caught his eye. He turned, staring toward where Keith was standing on the ramp of his own lion.

Lance eyed the snow reluctantly, before stepping into it and trudging uncomfortably over to the Red lion in determination. Keith looked up as he approached, looking defensive with his arms crossed over his chest, no doubt expecting a snowball attack.

“Your inner cat have a problem with getting its feet wet or something?” Lance huffed, stepping up onto the ramp next to Keith only to sit down by his feet. Keith stayed stiff and unapproachable for a few seconds, before sitting down next to Lance. He pulled his knees up to his chest, adjusting his helmet.

It wasn’t exactly new to them anymore, to voluntarily seek out each other’s company while the others were busy. With Shiro and Allura constantly heading out on diplomatic missions, Matt and Pidge heading out on solo missions to search for their father, and Hunk constantly sneaking off to see his long-term girlfriend Shay… it left Keith and Lance to fall together more often than not. 

At first, it’d been purely coincidental, they were far from each other’s first choice when it came to company. Then, as they grew to know each other beyond the fronts they put up, something changed in their dynamic. They trained together, ate together, went on as many missions as they could as a team, and generally looked for any excuse they could to spend time side-by-side. It’d gotten to the point where it was a joke with the rest of the team constantly mocking them for becoming two halves of a whole person.

The amount of time they spent arguing dwindled the more they hung out together, until they became tentative friends, then close friends, and now… whatever they were right now. Keith was still guarded, Lance still held on to being obnoxiously competitive, but there was something going on between them that the rest of the team wasn’t all that far off about.

Lance had been harboring a crush since the very moment Keith started to tolerate his presence. The alien hotties had been fascinating for the first year or two, he’d even had a few brief flings during his time in space… but there was something so much more comfortable about falling for someone so close to his heart. Keith just understood him, more than he could ever expect anyone else to. 

“Could ask you the same question, you don’t exactly look thrilled to be here.” Keith commented, hitting his boot against Lance’s. Lance stayed silent as he watched the others wrestling together in the snow, all laughing as if they were having the time of their lives. Keith faltered. “A lot of memories associated with it, huh?”

“Nah, I’m from Cuba, we didn’t have snow.” Lance responded, turning back to Keith. “It’s not really my moment, you know?”

“Mm, I get it.” Keith agreed, leaning back on the palms of his hands. “That’s how I always feel when the holidays come around.”

“I mean, we celebrated the holidays, just not with snow.” Lance mumbled distractedly, a realization hitting him a few seconds after he’d already spoken. Keith still hadn’t replied, he looked like he was debating how to answer that. “Did you not? Celebrate, I mean.”

Keith tensed at the question, the one he’d been asked so many times before by so many people in his life. He realized that this sort of thing was a big deal to most, that snow and Christmas was all some kind of magical experience when you were a normal person. He didn’t have the same childhood the rest of his teammates had, though. He couldn’t relate to it, didn’t have any warm memories to fall back on.

“Shiro tried to sucker me into some kind of gift exchange with him a few times, but I sucked at it so badly he’s resorted to just giving me gifts no matter how many times I tell him not to.” Keith explained, beginning to shiver. “Before that… I was never really in one place long enough to settle into traditions or whatever. Nothing ever really stuck with me.”

“You’re kidding.” Lance breathed, taking on that annoyingly awed tone everyone did when Keith started to open up about his past. The same way he couldn’t relate to any of them, they could hardly fathom growing up without the simple luxuries they’d always had. Keith understood it, it didn’t really hurt him anymore, it was more annoying that people expected it to. “Do you have  _ any _ traditions in your life?”

“My social worker used to take me out every year on my birthday, that was probably the most recurring-”

“That’s  _ it _ ?” Lance asked, his voice strained. Of course he realized as soon as he said it that he shouldn’t have, his jaw snapping shut and a pink flush spotting his cheeks beneath his helmet. Keith inhaled slowly, shaking his head. He didn’t particularly feel like fighting right now, he’d just let it go.

“It’s not a big deal, I’ve had my taste of Christmas and it’s not for me.” 

Perhaps it was because he felt guilty about prying into Keith’s personal life, or maybe he just couldn’t hold it in any longer, but next thing he knew Lance was settled beside him and talking about his own memories of the past.

“It was always for me. It was my favorite time of the year, I used to count down to it on all of my calendars, spent days choosing the perfect presents for everyone in my life. It was the closest thing I ever got to magic before being out here in space, you know?” Lance recalled fondly, bringing his knees up to his chest and subconsciously copying Keith’s body language. He sighed softly, watching on as the snowball fight grew more heated in front of them. “I miss it.”

“Then go celebrate with them?” Keith suggested, placing a gloved hand on the center of Lance’s back in a comforting gesture.

“It’s not the same.” Lance breathed out, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. Keith looked thoughtful, surprisingly more understanding about all of this than Lance had expected him to be. 

“I know it’s not.”

“I, uh, kinda don’t want it to be the same?” Lance muttered quietly, uncertain how to explain it any better than that. There was a longing in his chest for the way things used to be, but also a begrudging acceptance that he’d never truly get it back. The holidays had always been such an important thing to him, the idea of trying to recreate that without his family just seemed insulting.

“Guys! Stop standing around glaring at each other and come let us kick your butts at a snowball war!”

“Pidge, Hunk, and I are a team!” Matt added on to Pidge’s battle cry, tossing a smile toward Keith. It hit his knee with heavy impact, yet he gave no outward reaction other than a tired sigh. His hand dropped down Lance’s back, lingering at the small of it for just a second before pulling away entirely.

“That’s not fair, none of us have ever been in the snow before!” Lance yelled back at them, pouting over the unfair advantage. And if he was maybe also pouting over the fact that his moment with Keith had been interrupted, well, no one else had to know that.

“You’ve never seen snow either?” Pidge paused, turning to gape at them in disbelief. The second of distraction was their downfall, a boulder-sized snowball flying through the air and hitting them in the stomach hard enough to send them a good few feet backward onto their ass. Pidge groaned, shouting another reminder to Allura about what size a snowball was supposed to be.

They recovered quickly though, hopping to their feet and bounding over to Keith and Lance. They grabbed onto each of their hands, tugging them out into the snow despite their disgusted scowls as they sunk in up to their knees. “Come on!”

They ended up on opposite teams, split up so it’d be slightly more fair. Lance was a little bit disappointed over this as well, at least at first, until he realized this meant he could spend the entire game looking at Keith without needing an excuse. He was planning an attack, trying to scope out the enemies, making sure they weren’t getting a stock of snowballs ahead of them, you know how it was.

If Pidge thrashing around in the snow like some kind of animal had been cute, then Keith’s tentative first experiences with it were downright criminally adorable. Lance caught himself swooning behind the wall of their fort, watching as Keith went about scooping up the snow with his hands, that same concentrated pinch between his brows that he always adopted during actual battles.

And really, Lance was no saint, how was he expected to concentrate on anything else after realizing how much he wanted to be sharing this first experience with Keith? 

So he gave in to the temptation, telling his teammates that he was going out on the offensive to form an attack. Nevermind that he hardly had an armful of snowballs, or that they looked at him like they could see right through his less-than-pure intentions. He ignored it, traipsing across the small space between their fort and Matt, Allura, and Keith’s.

Lance had to dodge a few skillful snowball throws from Matt, but Keith didn’t look up once the whole time he closed the distance between them. He was so concentrated on stocking up his ammo, that he didn’t even notice the invader until it was too late. Keith jumped and squashed all of the snowballs he’d built when Lance leaned over the wall of their fort.

“This is kinda fun.” Lance drawled, flirty and low. It had the desired effect, Keith clammed right up and completely forgot that he was mad at Lance for ruining the fruits of his labor. He froze, tearing his gaze away from the squashed remains of his snowball supply, and looking tentatively up at Lance. 

His cheeks were flushed and he had one of those rare thousand-watt smiles tugging at the corners of his lips, the ones that Lance prided himself in being able to conjure onto his face more than any other teammate could. 

God, he was breathtaking.

“Right?” Keith said, softspoken and gentle for once in his life, voice lowered just enough to make it clear that this was a moment for the two of them and no one else behind the wall of that fort. Lance felt his heart thud treacherously in his chest.

That was when Lance promptly drilled a snowball into Keith’s face with all the force he could muster at the close proximity, watching as it shattered into a million breakaway pieces on the visor of his helmet.

“Hey!” Keith spluttered, swiping his hands across his helmet to clear his vision. He jumped up, shoving Lance back a step from the wall of their fort, looking utterly betrayed. Lance let himself be pushed, too amused to hold himself upright anyway. “That’s no fair!”

“That’s the point, Mullet, we’re in a _ war _ .” Lance managed through wheezing laughter, falling onto his ass in the snow. He clutched his stomach, uncaring when Allura and Matt began to pelt him with snowballs while he was down. “You can’t just hide behind your fort stocking up snowballs the entire time.”

“I can and I will!” Keith argued, though he sounded equally as amused by Lance’s antics. He grabbed up an armful of snow, towering over Lance within an instant and dropping all of it onto his face. Lance yelped, bolting upright when cold temperature of the snow seemed to seep right through his armor despite the temperature resistance on it.

Keith looked all too pleased with himself, standing above Lance and offering him a hand as a truce;  _ even as he laughed at Lance’s misfortune _ . There wasn’t even a question in Lance’s mind about his next course of action. He grabbed the hand... then yanked on it hard enough to pull Keith down into the snow with him.

Keith collapsed onto his chest with a quiet “oof”, his hands braced on either side of Lance’s head. They made eye contact for all of five seconds before bursting into laughter, Keith landing a flimsy hit to Lance’s shoulder before being rolled onto his back. They grappled in the snow just like that, rolling around and playfully swatting at each other.

“Guys, you fight with snowballs, not fists!” Allura shouted in reminder, as if they’d somehow gotten confused. Everyone else had noticed the shift in their fighting from something venomous to fond, but Allura still held onto the idea that it wasn’t very team-oriented of them to throw hands over anything at all. Lance wasn’t sure how to explain to her that they were bonding through this far more than any of the practice drills they’d been forced through.

They ignored her, much like they ignored the rest of the universe entirely as they wrestled. It quickly dissolved into a petty game of back and forth, a challenge to see who could shove the most snow into the other’s uniform. It was messy and dirty, Lance prying Keith’s helmet off his head and shoveling snow down the front of his bodysuit.

There was no telling how long they would have gone on like that, except for Matt and Allura pulled them apart by force once they realized there was still a chance this “snow” could contain unknown materials that’d react badly with direct touch. Lance wasn’t feeling any adverse effects yet, except for the frostbite threatening to gnaw into his flesh.

The moment Matt and Allura let them go with a warning of this fact, Keith and Lance drifted back to each other’s sides. They were both sharing that same pleased smirk with each other, practically mirroring the same expression. Lance propped his elbow up on Keith’s shoulder, wordlessly making fun of his height. And Keith stepped on his boots, wordlessly making fun of his unproportionately long legs. They’d gone through the motions enough times that they didn’t even need to say anything out loud anymore.

“Look, it’s the Keith and Lance version of a snow angel!” Pidge said, pointing toward the horrifying imprint of limbs and faces left in the snow where they’d been fighting. Lance stifled a laugh, leaning his weight heavier against Keith, still trying to catch his breath.

“Snow demon, no doubt.” Matt suggested, staring critically toward the mess. 

“Shut-up.” Keith snorted.

“Guys, the temperature is starting to drop as the sun rotates, you should get out of there soon.” Shiro’s voice crackled through the comms, bringing attention to the setting sun they’d only just started to notice.

“Fine.” Pidge sighed, stomping toward their lion. They paused to turn back to everyone else though, a little grin worming its way across their features. “Just so we’re all clear? I won that war.”

“We were on teams!” Hunk cried out, very obviously outraged. The others didn’t look surprised in the slightest, if anything Matt looked proud of his little sibling. 

“Just like old times, you’ve always been terrible at admitting defeat.” He sighed out, shaking his head ruefully.

“I missed this.” Pidge laughed, gaze focused intently on their brother. It was painstakingly clear that this was bringing back family memories for them, ones that they cherished from their childhood. And sure, it gave a secondhand sort of fuzzy feeling to everyone else, but more than that… it stung. Lance didn’t have anyone to fondly recall memories with. What he would give to have even one sibling out here with him in space, someone that understood him, someone that could feel the homesickness with him because they knew what his home had been.

“How many years has it been since we’ve had Christmas?” Matt hummed intuitively, presumably thinking back on how long he’d been in space. Time passed a little wonkily out here, none of them were entirely certain what time of year it was or how long they’d been gone. 

“It feels like a lifetime, I can tell you that much.” Hunk commented, a faraway look in his own eyes as he reflected on Christmases past. 

“We should celebrate it this year!” Pidge blurted suddenly, throwing their arms up in the way they always did when they were struck by a great idea. Lance stiffened, eyes widening as everyone else immediately lit up in agreement. He couldn’t help but feel the urge to ditch out into his lion and avoid this conversation altogether. “Starting right now, for the next thirty quintants, it’s the holiday season!”

“Wonderful! I’d love to learn more about Earth cultures and customs.” Coran shouted into their ear pieces, letting them know he’d been listening in the entire time. No one was surprised in the slightest by this.

“We’ll have a feast, gift exchange, more snow, a tree to decorate-”

“Fascinating, it sounds like such a complex festivity.” Allura agreed, eyes sparkling with interest.

“You bet it is!” Pidge enthused, jabbing their finger skyward. “The first team Voltron holidays, are you guys excited?”

“Yeah!” Everyone shouted in unison, minus the two paladins standing on the sidelines who had been quiet as mice the entire discussion. Lance, because he was suddenly drowning in memories and longing that he’d been just barely managing to hold at bay for months now without another breakdown. And Keith… because he didn’t have anything to contribute. 

As the others broke off into a group and animatedly began discussing holiday plans, Lance and Keith stayed rooted to the spot. Eventually, Keith cleared his throat, leaning his head against the elbow digging into his shoulder. Lance blinked, coming back to himself. He turned to Keith, looking flighty and panicked, the same way he always did when he wanted to retreat in on himself to face his issues on his own.

Keith always let him, he’d be a hypocrite if he didn’t respect anyone else’s right to keep things to themselves when they wanted to. Just this once though… he wanted to hold onto Lance for a little bit longer before letting him go off on his own.

“Hey, stop frowning, that’s my job.” Keith commented awkwardly, casting a wary glance toward the others before slipping an arm around Lance’s middle. After years of bickering back and forth, that playful part of their relationship came almost instinctively to the both of them. It came naturally even to Keith, whose experience with being “playful” was limited pretty much entirely to his time with Lance. 

This serious stuff though… it wasn’t so easy to adapt to. For the longest time, Lance had only ever gone to Hunk when he needed comforting, he’d hidden any and all of his insecurities vehemently from the rest of the team. He picked himself apart, divided his traits into best and worst categories. Anything he’d viewed as a fault had been buried deep within himself to deal with alone, while the things he figured the universe wanted to see from him had been broadcasted loud and proud to drown everything else out.

Some people fell for it, brushed Lance off as someone obnoxiously overconfident because that’s all he’d ever shown them. 

Keith had known from the start that it was all an act, but it was never his place to comment on it, never his place to care. Lance had  _ made  _ a place for him now, opening up bit by bit as they grew closer this past year. Keith was doing his best to prove that he was worth going out on a limb for. “You, uh, don’t wanna ruin this for them.”

“No, of course not.” Lance agreed, shaking himself out of his stupor. He plastered on one of his usual bravado smiles, turning to Keith to reassure him that he was fine. Keith stared blankly back at him, eyes fixated on Lance’s and the way this mockery of a smile never quite reached them. 

Lance’s expression faltered, something akin to a frown flickering across his features instead. He coughed, eyeing the rest of the team the same way Keith had, before cautiously wrapping an arm around Keith’s shoulders and pulling him further into his side. “Thanks, Keith.”

Keith was… malfunctioning. He’d thought that putting an arm around Lance would be the right thing to do, knew that Lance was a very physical comfort kind-of person even if it wasn’t exactly Keith’s strongest suit. And sure, it’d done the job well enough, Lance looked infinitely more at ease now than he had before Keith had held him.

The problem was Keith could hardly think straight with the knowledge that Lance had _ reciprocated _ the touch. You don’t return a comforting gesture, especially not when the person you’re giving it to is in no need of comforting. So what did this mean? Lance just wanted him even closer?

“I didn’t do anything.” Keith breathed, biting his lip. He was holding his breath, waiting for Lance to explain himself, to at least pull away and rush to catch up to the others. For a moment, Keith thought that he might, that Lance would run off to his lion and leave Keith to short circuit in peace. 

Instead, he started to laugh, a fond little giggle that was so damned light and airy that Keith couldn’t even bring himself to regret any of what was happening. He’d done that. He’d cheered Lance up just by being there.

Lance turned to him, hesitating for only a second before burying his face into Keith’s hair with a soft sigh.

“Liar.”

_ Keith.exe has stopped working. _

\--

Lance tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans, strolling aimlessly through the castle halls. He ended up turning into the lounge, eyes widening with recognition as they fell on Matt. Of course, it was only a second after that that he registered the rest of the room.

A large alien tree stood tall in the middle of the room, ornaments strewn all over its branches. Every corner of the room was covered in similar decorations, every surface sparkling with tinsel or glitter. Lance shivered uncomfortably. Matt must have heard him vocalize his presence, because he suddenly turned around and lit up. 

“Lance!” Matt greeted, holding up a wreath around his face. Shiro snorted from where he was sprawled out across one of the couches. “What do you think of this color scheme? We’re trying to theme it around the colors of Voltron.”

“It’s nice.” Lance managed, flashing a smile before turning on his heel and promptly leaving the room. He knew that everyone else knew something was up, no use trying to be subtle about it anymore.

It’d been a couple days since their brief stint on the snow planet. They were still orbiting close to it as Coran and Allura worked out some future plans with an ally they were visiting soon, meaning Pidge’s Christmas craze hadn’t faded in the slightest. It’d only grown stronger, more intense. It was like they were determined to turn the entire castle into Santa’s workshop.

He wanted just one place he could spend time with the others and not be constantly reminded of things he was missing from home, that’s all. The new-age technology of the castle had always been nice because there was nothing familiar about it. The decorations, the atmosphere… it all hit a little too close to home, or maybe not close enough.

Lance sought out Pidge next, unsurprised to find them with a screen inches from their face. He stepped into their lab, propping himself against one of the many metal work tables.

“Pidgeon, what’s up?” He asked, peering curiously over the back of their shoulder. The screen was covered in a sea of science-type stuff, things that Lance could probably understand if he took the time to, but truly couldn’t be bothered to concentrate on. 

“I’m trying to make synthetic snow.” Pidge answered, pressing their glasses up the bridge of their nose distractedly. They pointed to their side, where a beaker was bubbling with a mysterious liquid. “Can you pass me that?”

“Sure.” Lance agreed hurriedly, sliding it down the table to them. He hesitated then, shifting from foot to foot as he looked around the small space. Even in Pidge’s workshop, there was garland strung around the rafters. It was made out of a plant that looked nothing like a Christmas tree, but the message was clear. 

Lance cleared his throat, feeling infinitely out of place. “Hunk in the kitchen like usual?”

“You bet.” Pidge confirmed, pouring something else into the beaker. Lance inched his way out of the room, feeling grateful that he could always rely on Hunk to stay the same.

He pranced into the kitchen, humming excitedly under his breath as he swung around the frame of the door. Sure enough, Hunk was standing in front of the Altean stove like usual, his favorite place to be when he wasn’t working on an engineering project or spending time with Shay. Lance grinned, jumping up onto the counter and swinging his legs over the edge.

“Hey buddy.” Lance greeted warmly, eyeing the mess of ingredients scattered all over the counters. Hunk was either cooking a feast or inventing a new recipe entirely, how exciting! Lance could already feel his mouth watering. “Whatcha baking up today?”

“Trying to remake my mother’s fruit cake recipe from memory alone.” Hunk answered, sounding concentrated. He stood suddenly, spinning around with a pan of cake in each hand. He sat them next to Lance, handing him a slice of both. “Here, try! Tell me which one tastes the best.”

Lance accepted the plate, eyeing the two options.

God, it was pathetic, here he was feeling homesick just from looking at a plate of food. It was just something about the holiday atmosphere, every single detail could be traced back to a treasured memory from his past. There had been so many Christmases, so many nights spent helping his mother prepare the gifts and the food, so many mornings spent opening presents and messing around with his siblings. There was such a tangible absence of home out here in space, no matter how many years he’d spent aboard the castle.

“Mm, it’s delicious.” Lance moaned, chowing down on the cake, never one to refuse food. He was telling the truth, it was one of the best things he’d ever eaten. Sure, it wasn’t anywhere near the same as his mother’s fruit cake, but that might have been due to nostalgia rather than actual skill. Oh, she used to make the best Christmas dinners, every counter would be lined with-

“Lance, what’s wrong?” Hunk demanded suddenly, sliding all of his baking materials aside so he could jump up onto the counter next to Lance. It was odd, considering more often than not he was relentlessly lecturing Lance and trying to drag him away from his baking space when he did things like this. Hunk must be really worried about him, huh? 

“Huh? Nothing’s wrong, the cake was great.”

“I’m not talking about the cake, Lance.” Hunk deadpanned, clearly unimpressed with the last-ditch attempt at changing the subject. Lance sighed, slumping against Hunk’s side and fighting the urge to cry like the whiny baby he was.

“It’s just… the holidays were always a family thing for me? It’s weird celebrating them as anything else. It makes me homesick for  _ my  _ holidays, you know?”

“This can be your holiday too, Lance.” Hunk spoke gently, trying to brave the minefield of Lance’s mind without setting him off again with another memory or another sore spot. “This isn’t changing your old traditions, it’s just adopting new ones with the other people that matter to you. We would never dream of taking your memories or your family away from you, we just want to celebrate in our own way with the people close to us right now.”

“I know that, I know you guys are just trying to make this something fun for us.” Lance insisted, knowing that the last thing he wanted was for the others to feel guilty about how much he was hurting. It wasn’t their fault for celebrating, they deserved to have this moment to feel better and take a break. No, he didn’t want them to stop what they were doing, he just wasn’t sure he could stomach being a part of it right now. “I just… the holiday season was always my favorite back home and here it’s like I don’t have any of the things that made me happiest on Earth. I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“Well, I’m sure Pidge would hear you out if you have any suggestions or anything you want to add to the mix to make this more familiar for you.” Hunk offered, kicking his foot against Lance’s nervously jittering one. “I’d love to learn about your family traditions.”

“Thanks, Hunk.” Lance inhaled sharply, slipping down off the counter and onto his feet. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, his throat feeling closed off and difficult to breathe through. He turned toward the door, desperate to get back to the safety of his own room. “I’ll think on it, but for now I’m gonna avoid the whole celebration.”

“That’s fine, take your time.”

Lance turned to leave, just barely managing to face the other direction as fat, angry tears started to streak down his cheeks. The universe was so cruel and uncaring, unfair. He was mad at the entirety of it, from the fates choosing him to be a paladin of Voltron to himself for being so pathetically weak and incapable of the task. His eyes fell on the doorway, ready to bolt out of it, when he registered the outline of a person standing there.

“Keith.” Lance breathed, his voice shaking. 

Keith hadn’t meant to spend long in the kitchen. He’d just finished having a shower after a particularly brutal training session and was just about ready to pass out despite the early hour. All he had left to do was grab a quick snack, considering he’d missed supper earlier. 

Secretly, he was all too tempted to just pass out without eating anything, but he reasoned with himself that Lance would have his head if he found out about that. He was always on everyone’s asses about self-care, the biggest hypocrite in the world considering he hardly slept most nights. Keith knew this because he could hear him pacing in the room over.

So he caved, totally whipped for Lance even when the other boy wasn’t around and had no way of commenting on it. Keith found himself headed to the kitchen before he’d even had time to register just how hungry he was. He turned down the hall, turned into the doorway, and then froze.

He wasn’t sure how much of the conversation he’d missed, but he caught the just of it as he watched Lance lean heavily into Hunk’s side like he couldn’t bear to hold himself upright. Something in Keith had crumpled, every bit of resolve he had to approach this rationally as to not make an idiot out of himself and ruin what they had going on between them. He didn’t care about how he looked anymore, only about how Lance felt.

So when Lance turned to leave and Keith caught his first glimpse of the tears brimming in those blue eyes of his, the words had been leaving his lips before he’d even fully realized what he was planning on saying. He stumbled forward to meet Lance halfway, heart racing with the simple desire to protect. It was the same instinct that drove him through battle, except he couldn’t exactly stab Lance’s pain away, he had to learn a new way to fight.

“Wanna play that dumb video game of yours?” He asked, grabbing Lance’s hands in each of his own before he could talk himself out of it. Lance blanked, tugging gently on Keith’s hold, clearly insecure about the fact he couldn’t wipe his tears away. Finally, he gave in and nodded, smiling gently as he sniffled.

“I’d love that.” Lance agreed, allowing Keith to lead the way out of the kitchen. The moment they were alone together in the hallway, Keith turned back to Lance and reached up to swipe his tears away with his thumbs. Lance stood there silently, his expression unsettlingly emotionless.

That changed the moment they made it back to Lance’s room. By then, Keith wasn’t expecting to have to do any more comforting. Lance had seemed relatively composed the whole way there, he hadn’t had anything to say, but hadn’t cried anymore either. Keith thought he was in the clear, that maybe Lance just needed a distraction.

The moment the doors to Lance’s room slid closed behind them, Keith turned to scan the room for the game system Lance treasured so much. He frowned, digging through the pile of clothes on Lance’s desk to locate the controllers.

“So, where are the-” He didn’t manage to finish asking before a pair of arms wrapped around his stomach from behind, pulling him back against the flat of Lance’s chest. Keith’s eyes widened, heart stuttering as he leaned back into the embrace. “Lance? You alright?”

“Promise me you’re gonna keep hating Christmas?” Lance breathed out against the back of his neck, trembling slightly. Keith sighed, easily spinning around and breaking Lance’s stubborn hold on him. He turned to Lance, unsurprised to see he was crying again and attempting to hide it.

He reached up to grab Lance’s hand before he could hide his face behind it, sighing fondly as he pulled him closer with the grip. Keith wrapped Lance up in his arms the moment he was close enough, giving him a proper hug.

“Pidge would kill me if they found out about that promise, they’re determined to convert me into a holiday fanatic.” Keith whispered, backing up until they could fall onto Lance’s bed together. He shuffled back, resting his head on the pillow as Lance immediately swaddled himself into a blanket so only his face was left showing. He wasn’t going to give Keith even that much, but Keith reached out and pulled the blankets back before he could hide away entirely. “Hey, you’re safe with me, you don’t have to think about it.”

“I miss them so much.” Lance whispered, blinking rapidly in an effort to keep from crying. Keith shifted closer, throwing an arm around the blanket lump that was supposedly Lance’s body. The other boy smiled weakly, dropping his head heavy onto Keith’s chest. “I don’t want to forget. I don’t want new traditions. I want to go _ home _ .”

“We’ll get you back to them, Lance.” Keith promised, a man of his word, he was determined to make sure he found a way to get Lance back to his family. He deserved that much, after all he’d sacrificed for the greater good of the universe.

Keith sighed, grabbing the other blanket on the bed and throwing it over both of them. He patted the top of Lance’s head distractedly, at first cold and distant like he might pat a stranger’s dog, and then as his eyes grew heavy he caught himself working his fingers through Lance’s hair.

He inhaled sharply, pausing the movement. Immediately, Lance whined in protest in his half-asleep state and pushed his head up into the palm of Keith’s hand like a needy kitten. Keith smiled to himself, feeling thankful that they had what they did, even though Lance deserved so much more. “Someday.”

“Someday.” Lance repeated, quiet and slurred, sounding almost awed.

\--

Lance staggered tiredly into the dining hall, yawning into his palm. He realized almost immediately that most of the team was already there, his eyes flitting around all the occupied seats before landing on Keith’s very empty one. Idiot, skipping breakfast to train again, Lance would have to ambush him with a granola bar later.

As it was, Lance simply slid into his seat. The others were all deep in a discussion, shouting and squealing like children as they discussed yet another Christmas-related project, no doubt. Lance lost himself in a bowl of wannabe cereal, chowing down on the strange alien-version of corn flakes. 

Once he’d finished, he looked hopefully toward the group. They were a little bit quieter now, not quite so animated, maybe they had a minute to spare to spend some time with him?

“Hey guys, anyone wanna-”

“Lance! Tomorrow is Christmas eve, do you have any idea how much we have left to do?!” Allura interrupted, looking stressed for all of a second before she broke out into a smile. She repeated herself, as if starstruck that the holiday was already so close. To be fair, Lance was a little surprised himself that time had passed so quickly. He’d been spending so much time with Keith lately, dodging everyone else around the castle, he’d hardly realized weeks were flying by.

“Right.” Lance exhaled, getting to his feet. “I’ll go… see what Keith’s up to.” 

“Make sure to haul his ass to supper later, okay? I’ll make your favorite if you do.” Hunk called after him, brushing his hand over Lance’s arm as he shuffled past. They exchanged a quick smile, Lance instantly reassured of his place in the team. There’d been a few times as of late that he couldn’t help but feel excluded, with all of them constantly focused on something he wasn’t involved in. 

Hunk was always careful to remind him that it was from no lack of desire to have him there that they kept him out of it though, but rather due to Lance’s own request for space. Even the others had asked Lance a few times now to join them for Christmas-related projects, but he’d denied the requests every time.

He made it to the training deck in record time, practically running the whole way there despite his best efforts to play it off as speed-walking. He didn’t want anyone to catch him and accuse him of being desperate or something.

He walked onto the training deck, sticking to the sidelines as his gaze fell on Keith. He was fighting in a pair of loose joggers and a crop top, baring his scarred midriff as he went about slashing into the training bot that was set to a dangerous level. Lance stumbled to sit down on the bench without taking his eyes off of Keith, mesmerized by the way he moved as he fought.

When the training sequence ended, Lance found himself feeling as parched as Keith looked. Keith marched up to the bench, walking straight toward Lance with the face of a man on a mission, only to veer off at the very last second to grab his water bottle from the bench instead. Lance sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to keep from vocalizing his disappointment.

“You come here often?” Lance blurted stupidly, eyes still glued to the tantalizing strip of skin showing beneath the hem of Keith’s shirt. Keith got his revenge immediately, and also unintentionally, when he laughed so unexpectedly he snorted water through his nose and spit out a mouthful of it onto Lance’s face. Lance glared up at him.

“Ha.” Keith deadpanned, swiping his arm across his mouth. Lance decided to let it slide just this once, swiping the sleeves of his jacket across his own face.

“I see you’ve managed to defend this one room from the holiday explosion inside the castle.” He commented, stretching his legs out across the bench even further.

“Just barely, Pidge was trying to program the sentries to sing Christmas songs when I walked in here this morning.” Keith commented, turning back toward the crumpled robot that he’d dispatched just before.

“Who knows, it might be a good idea, would inspire you to shut them up even quicker.”

“Hmm, maybe you’re right.” Keith hummed, sounding genuinely thoughtful. He turned then, eyeing Lance’s sprawled out form for a long, torturous second. Lance sat there wondering if maybe he was being checked out, when Keith lifted his foot and kicked Lance in the stomach. “Scoot over.”

“I’ll do no such thing.” Lance insisted stubbornly, making a show of stretching his arms high above his head and arching his back like a cat napping in the sun. Keith narrowed his eyes.

“Then I’ll sit on you.” Keith gave him absolutely zero time to process that statement before clambering on top of him, the bulk of his weight settling on Lance’s chest. Lance wheezed, gasping as he attempted to shove Keith off. Eventually, he went limp, playing dead as Keith continued to sip his water indifferently.

“Ah, is this the way I finally go? After battling a war for three years in a sentient magic robot lion, I’ve succumbed to death via Keith Kogane’s fat ass.” A pause. A snort. A quiet little giggle that had Lance swooning.

“You’re such a…”

“Are you smiling?” Lance demanded to know, squirming relentlessly until Keith scooted down enough to let him sit up. Nevermind that this left Lance with a lap full of Keith, that fond little toothy grin Keith was sporting was enough to give a man a heart attack. Who allowed that? “You thought that was _ funny _ .”

“No, I think the fact that you thought that was funny is funny.”

“Stop, you’re hurting my head.” Lance groaned, dropping his head to press his forehead into Keith’s shoulder. He settled his hands on the man’s hips as well, unable to keep himself from absentmindedly smoothing his thumbs over the exposed skin just above Keith’s waistband. “I came here to take a break from the confusion, not make it worse.”

“What are you confused about?” Keith asked, tossing his empty water bottle aside. He stretched his legs out ahead of him, flexing his arms as well before going lax against Lance’s chest. Lance huffed, grabbing the hair elastic off of Keith’s wrist to tie his messy mullet mane up with it.

“How I should feel about the joyous atmosphere out there.” 

“Hmm… my best guess is  _ joyous _ .”

“ _ You  _ don’t look joyous.”

“Neither do you.” Keith confirmed, looking back at Lance over his shoulder. He tilted his head to the side, reaching up and clumsily fumbling around until he landed a hand on Lance’s head. Keith mussed up his hair, ignoring Lance’s content sigh. “Guess we’re a couple of grinches.” 

“I never pictured myself as a Grinch.”

“You wanna do something?” Keith suggested suddenly, sounding surprisingly energetic considering how visibly exhausted he looked after such an intense fight. Lance leaned his head back against the wall behind him, staring up at the ceiling.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, fly our lions around a little bit, avoid whatever this is for a little bit longer until Pidge wraps us up in wrapping paper so we can’t escape.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” 

“I’ll tell Allura we want to explore that snow planet a little bit more?” Keith suggested, not missing the unenthusiastic scowl on Lance’s face at the thought of the cold. Keith stifled a laugh, punching him in the shoulder lightly. “It’s still the closest surface, otherwise we’d go somewhere else.”

“Alright, I’ll wear an extra layer under my flight suit.” Lance sighed in defeat, knowing he’d willingly go to Hell and back if Keith were the one inviting him. It was so hard to say no, especially when Lance knew exactly how Keith smiled when he said yes. That shy little surprised grin, every single time, like he somehow still expected Lance to reject him.

He was doing it now, staring at Lance like he’d strung the stars in the skies. Damn.

“Cool.” Keith breathed, reaching up to cup Lance’s cheek. Lance went impossibly still beneath him, eyes wide as Keith raked his violet ones over Lance’s face at the close proximity. He looked appreciative, at least, but there was something curious glinting in his gaze that had Lance’s heart racing with opportunity.

However, Keith rose to his feet quickly after that, speeding out of the room and leaving Lance behind to debate what it’d meant.

\--

“Not to insult your company, Keith, but this sucks.” Lance said, hoping that his tone gave off conversational vibes rather than complaining ones. They’d been walking in silence for a few minutes now, but given how far ahead they could see, there really wasn’t anything out there for them to walk toward.

“Yeah, there really isn’t much to see here.” Keith sighed next to him, sounding somehow disappointed in himself like it was _ his  _ fault the planet sucked. “Just… snow.”

“Hey, I have an idea.” Partly to cheer Keith up, but also because he couldn’t stand to walk another step without a destination in mind. It was boring, not to mention Keith had been weirdly quiet this whole trip since they’d landed their lions. What was he thinking about anyway? What a weirdo.

Lance kneeled in the snow, picking up a big armful. “I’m going to build a snowman that looks like you, you build a snowgod that looks like me.”

“Fuck off.” Keith laughed, shaking his head even as he turned to start working on his own creation. They fell into silence as they worked, aside from the occasional ominous comment to throw each other off. If Lance was being perfectly honest, he was almost scared to see what Keith was creating, given the way he was snickering to himself as he worked.

“Can I borrow your gloves?” Lance asked, eyeing the finished product of his snowman and realizing something was definitely missing. Keith had the gloves of his bodysuit right now anyway, he had no need for those fingerless ones.

“And get them covered in snow? No.” 

“Please?” Lance pleaded, voice drawn out and whiny. The gloves landed in the snow at his feet within seconds. He smiled to himself smugly, picking them up and putting them into place. “Almost done?”

“No.”

“What about now?”

“No.”

“Keith.”

“Fine.” 

“On the count of three?” Lance suggested brightly, eager to show off his modern-day masterpiece. He couldn’t believe how well it’d turned out, the resemblance to Keith was borderline uncanny. 

“Sure.” Keith agreed, beginning the countdown immediately. “One, two, three!”

They both whirled around at the exact same time. Lance’s gaze fell onto a creature of hell, a snowman with giant ears attached on either side of its head and a dangerously Dorito-shaped chin. He pouted, placing his hands on his hips. He couldn’t keep from laughing though, no matter how he tried.

“Pfft, oh my god!” He burst out finally, spinning around to slap his hand against Keith’s back. Keith was laughing too, quietly under his breath as he studied the excellent detail Lance had gone to. “Why are my ears as big as my head?! I’m offended!”

“Where the hell did you find this many vines to make a mullet out of? This planet is barren.” Keith mumbled in awe, picking up one of the long seaweed-like plants Lance had found. Proudly, Lance kneeled next to his feet and began to dig. After a few feet, the green surface beneath started to show through.

“Check it out.” 

“How are these alive? Isn’t it too cold for them here?”

“Guess they’re mutant super plants.” Lance suggested, shrugging his shoulders. He was more interested in the way Keith had kneeled next to him, hand resting on Lance’s thigh for support as he studied all the strange plants.

“I bet Coran would love some samples of these.” Keith mumbled, poking at the plants curiously. Lance sighed long and hard, rising to his feet. He dramatically started back to their lions, forging his own path rather than following the zigzagged one they’d made before. He ran back though, snatching Keith’s gloves off of his snow creation.

“There you go again, always making it about work.” He muttered, watching as Keith went about collecting the samples for Coran. He slipped Keith’s gloves onto his fingers, nevermind that he had no use for them with his body suit already stretching over his hands. “All work and no play makes a very dull gay, you know.”

“I-” Keith sounded annoyed almost, which wasn’t exactly commonplace for them now that they were constantly together and getting along. Lance immediately tried to backtrack, attempting to step around his snowman when suddenly the ground beneath him seemed to shudder. Lance’s eyes widened, horror spreading across his face.

“Keith.” He whispered, too scared to move a muscle.

“Lance, just give me a second to finish up here then you can have as much attention as you need.”

“ _ Keith _ .” Lance repeated, this time allowing his fear to show through. Keith bolted upright in an instant, whipping his head around for any sign of a threat. He turned to Lance then, hand slowly shifting off of his bayard. Lance wheezed. “I think... I’m standing on thin ice.”

“Lance,  _ don’t move _ .” Keith spoke perfectly evenly, though his own worry was very evident in his unsteady gaze. He shifted onto his hands and knees, then his stomach, and slowly started sliding toward Lance like a penguin. He reached out, hand outstretched and making grabby motions. “Grab my hand.”

“I’m scared.” Lance blurted, not wanting to kneel even the slightest bit so he could reach the hand. Keith groaned, planting his face helmet-first into the snow. He propped himself back up quickly though, exhaling heavily.”

“That’s okay, you’re allowed to be scared. I need you to let me help you, though. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” Keith pleaded, desperation leaching into his voice as he heard an audible crack in the ice below Lance. Lance seemed to hear it too, because suddenly he was rushing to kneel and grab Keith’s hand, so fast that the ground beneath him shook again.

“Keith! Don’t let g-” Lance started to say, Keith attempting to haul him back toward land the moment their fingers had brushed. Lance didn’t get the chance to finish though, nor did Keith get the chance to catch his breath, because suddenly the ice was shattering. Lance cried out as his legs fell into the water, clearly pained by how cold it was even with his armor on. 

He was holding onto Keith’s hand for dear life before suddenly the grip began to slip. Keith tried to catch him, but he realized too late that the problem wasn’t his grip in itself, but rather the slipper glove on Lance’s hand that struck Keith as immediately familiar.

“Lance!” Keith screamed, scrambling forward far enough that he had to fear for his own safety as he attempted to get ahold of Lance again. He was thrashing in the little Lance-shaped break in the ice, gasping for air every time he’d managed to get his head above water only to go back under again because he was struggling. 

Then, one time he went under and simply didn’t return. Keith scrambled across the ice on his stomach before realizing Lance was under it somewhere, that he couldn’t dream of telling where with this much snow layered on top of the ice. 

Keith spun back onto the land as fast as he could, sprinting to the lions as fast as he could. He pounded against Blue’s paw, gasping to catch his breath. “Blue, let me in! Lance needs us and Red can’t go underwater!” 

Either Blue understood or Lance’s panic activated something within her, as suddenly her systems whirred to life. She didn’t even wait for Keith to climb aboard, instead soaring forward and smashing through the ice in one brutal dive. She was back up within seconds, smashing through the ice in a different spot on her way up.

It still wasn’t fast enough for Keith, who was running to meet her before she’d even landed fully. She opened her mouth to him this time and he dove in to where Lance was laying, shivering and unhealthily blue in the face.

“Lance.” Keith gasped, immediately gathering Lance into his arms as gently as he could. He lifted the man up, walking him back toward Red where he was certain he had first aid supplies to help. Lance was coughing in his arms, but somehow still conscious. Blue must have gotten to him just in time. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Can you hear me?”

“F-Fucking… c-cold.” Lance stuttered out over the course of ten seconds, grappling at Keith’s shoulders to get as close to him as possible. Keith nodded, stepping into Red and gently laying Lance in the pilot’s seat so he could get his supplies. He was back as quickly as possible, trying to remember everything he’d learned about treating hypothermia.

“Okay, let’s get your wet clothes off.” Keith decided aloud, reaching for Lance before he’d even really processed the implications of taking Lance’s clothes off. You couldn’t really take a person’s clothes off without seeing them naked, Keith. 

He didn’t even think about the uncomfortableness of the situation, running on pure adrenaline and a deep-rooted need to make sure Lance would be okay. He managed to get Lance’s armor entirely off and was halfway through peeling his body suit back when he realized just how still the other paladin was beneath him. Keith panicked, eyes darting to Lance’s face in search of any sign of consciousness when instead he found… the most prominent blush he figured Lance was capable of at the moment.

He blanked, gaze slowly trailing downward to where his hands were resting on Lance’s bare chest. Oh.

“A-Always a charmer, this one.” Lance managed weakly, turning his head so Keith couldn’t see his face as easily. Keith gulped, wishing he was still blissfully unaware as he pulled the wet bodysuit entirely off of Lance. At least he was wearing underwear underneath it, albeit soaked underwear that clung to his skin and left little to the imagination.

Keith squeaked, grabbing up the blanket he’d grabbed from the floor and tossing it around Lance’s shoulders. He’d have to kick off the underwear on his own once he got feeling back in his legs. 

Meanwhile, Lance was still refusing to meet his gaze. For a worrisome moment, Keith wondered if maybe he’d crossed a line by failing to ask for permission before doing what he’d just done. Lance explained the situation before he could embarrass himself by asking about it, thankfully.

Lance held up his hands out of the blanket. Keith immediately misunderstood what this meant and grabbed them, rubbing his hands on either side of Lance’s and blowing on them to warm them up. He noticed that Lance still looked tense though, almost guilty… “I’m sorry about your gloves.”

Keith blinked, staring at Lance’s bare hands and realizing that Lance was worried about the fact he’d lost Keith’s gloves during that near death experience. Keith groaned.

“Lance.” He laughed a little hysterically, leaning close and resting his forehead against Lance’s. He inhaled and exhaled steadily, listening closely as Lance’s shuddery breathing slowly evened out to mirror it. “That doesn’t matter to me, I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“Snow? Sucks.” Lance concluded, gathering the blankets closer to his body. Keith nodded, helping blanket-bundled Lance onto the floor so they could both settle next to Red’s heating system. Lance’s shivering slowly died down over the next hour, though now he looked downright exhausted. Keith wasn’t sure about letting him fly back to the castle on his own, he could hardly keep his eyes open.

“You think you can handle flying back to the castle now that you’ve warmed up for a while?” Keith asked, watching as Lance startled awake at the sound of his voice. He blinked blearily around the cockpit, before yawning and sinking back down into Keith’s side.

“Sure.” He concluded, though he made no move to get ready to leave. Keith glanced over to where he’d draped Lance’s clothes to dry out, biting his lip. “Uh, Keith?”

“What?”

“We’ve got a problem.” Lance commented, lifting his hand to point toward the windows. Keith followed his gaze, gaping at the thick wall of snow coming down outside. It was unlike any storm he’d ever witnessed, starting within the past thirty seconds and now coming down so heavy it was at risk of burying them.

“Holy shit.” Keith clambered to his feet, walking over to the controls. He squinted outside, noticing that the sun had set completely. “That’s insane, I can’t see anything.”

“Can you fly in this?” Lance asked, concerned.

“I could try, but the last thing I want is to lose my sense of direction and end up dive-bombing into a frozen lake. Red can’t handle water like Blue can.” Keith said, testing to see if he could make contact with the castleship for a rescue mission. He frowned when nothing came through. “Comms aren’t working with this much disturbance either.”

“Great.” Lance huffed, burrowing further into the blankets and preparing for the most uncomfortable overnight camping trip of his life. Keith messed with the controls for a moment longer, before giving in to the inevitable and walking back to Lance. 

“Fuck, I’ve never missed Texas so much in my life.”

“Tell me about it, I’ll take Cuba’s scorching weather over this in a heartbeat.” Lance grumbled, watching as Keith slid down the wall to sit next to him. He made no move to reach for the blankets, simply sat there like the idiot he was. Lance glared at him. Maybe he was alright in his temperature-proof suit that wasn’t soaked through with water, but Lance was basically naked and frozen.

He reached out and poked Keith in the cheek, pouting visibly. “Conserve body heat?”

“Yeah, sure.” Keith grunted eventually, shifting under the uplifted corner of the blanket. He pressed himself into Lance’s side, looking incredibly uneasy. Lance sighed fondly, shaking his head.

“Keith?” Lance spoke gently, twirling the hair at the base of Keith’s neck around his fingertip.

“Mm?”

“Our suits are heat and cold proof until extremes, there’s no way we’re getting shared body heat out of this.” Lance pointed out the obvious, resisting the urge to chuckle at how awkward Keith was being about all of this. 

“You’re right.” Keith responded, standing up and slowly beginning to discard his armor. Lance waited patiently, training his gaze on the ground so as not to make Keith uncomfortable. It wasn’t long before a warm body settled next to his under the blanket, Keith’s bare arm brushing against Lance’s and sending a shiver through both of them.

Lance cursed himself for being such a smitten idiot in the exact same instance that Keith cursed himself for being touch-starved and lovestruck.

Eventually, after many minutes of being tense next to each other with their bodies refusing to relax, their exhaustion crept in on them enough for their guards to drop. Lance found his head falling onto Keith’s shoulder, Keith found himself running his hand over Lance’s back and relishing in the closeness of another person.

They fell asleep like that for a while, only to wake through the night with chattering teeth and blue lips it was so cold. Keith went about lighting a fire then, right there in the middle of the cockpit, despite Lance’s many protests. Keith insisted that it was fine, that he had everything he needed to light one and keep it under control.

“Think Red will be mad if you light a fire in her?” Lance asked, watching as Keith tore another page out of the chaptered book in his hands and fed it to the growing flame. 

Lance had known for a while now that Keith was a bit of an avid reader, mostly bizarre classic books or sci-fi things that were so intricate no one in their right mind would ever dare to understand. It was something entirely different to see Keith bring an armful of books out of Red’s storage compartment though.

Was this what Keith did when he disappeared into his lion for hours on end after someone upset him? Lance had always figured he angrily flew around as fast as he could, destroying everything in his path like some kind of charging bull. This seemed more Keith-like, now that he thought about it.

“Nah, she likes when things are hot.” Keith responded, hovering his hands over the fire to warm them up. Lance shivered, plastering himself closer to Keith’s side to leach his heat, too cold to risk reaching out of the blankets himself.

“It’s always hot and heavy with you red ones.”

“Don’t flirt with my lion.” Keith deadpanned, glaring into the flames. Lance chuckled, digging his toes into Keith’s calves.

“Wouldn’t be the first time, why do you think she likes me so much?” Keith rolled his eyes and Lance stuck his tongue out, jabbing a finger into Keith’s ribs. “Besides, who’s to say I was flirting with _ her _ ?”

“Shut-up.” Keith groaned, sounding physically pained. Lance snickered, but he decided to give Keith a break just this once. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle it either if they actually started flirting back and forth, under a blanket, barely-clothed. Yeah, he’d pass just this once.

“Think the others will come looking for us?” Lance asked, noticing that Keith had finished shredding an entire book. He was looking through his other ones now, frowning at each option like he didn’t want to part with them. A twinge of sympathy hit Lance heavy in the chest.

“They’d better not.”

“Why? Don’t want them to walk in on this and get the wrong idea?” Lance snickered, gesturing between the two of them. Keith glanced over at him, an unfamiliar look crossing over his face. He looked away quickly though, ears tinted bright pink. If that didn’t say exactly where his mind was at, then there really wasn’t anything else that would.

“No, I don’t want them to get stuck here and freeze to death.” Keith insisted, picking up another book and beginning to skim through it. Lance was flushed now too, once again forced to become aware of how close they were, of how little was between their bodies. 

Keith lingered on this book for a while longer than the others, flipping to the first page and distractedly starting to read it. Lance propped himself up higher on Keith’s shoulder, eyes following the lines of the page halfheartedly at first before he found himself genuinely reading a book about cryptids. 

Neither of them mentioned it, but Keith continued to read. It wasn’t until he turned the page to soon that Lance broke their fragile moment with a soft whine. He settled a hand on Keith’s leg, rubbing a soothing line up it. “Hey, don’t turn the page yet, I wasn’t done.”

“I could just read it to you.” Keith suggested, having memorized this particular book a long time ago considering how limited his options were out in space. Lance perked up at that, his hand sliding higher almost absentmindedly. Keith gnashed his teeth together, determined not to comment on just how high up on his thigh that hand was going, dangerous territory. He didn’t want to draw attention to it, not when Lance was clearly unaware.

“Sure, I’d like that.” Lance agreed, smirking as he slid his hand higher. “Hey, Keith?”

“Hm?” Keith responded, a choked-out strained noise. Lance grinned devilishly to himself, finally drawing his hand away so Keith could concentrate on the story. He was actually interested in hearing about these cryptids now, nerdy as hell or not. 

He settled in against Keith’s chest, smiling to himself.

“Merry Christmas Eve eve.”

\--

Lance wasn’t sure how long one of his family members had been insistently pounding on his door, but he was sure he was going to pound them into a pulp the moment he woke the rest of the way up. He grumbled, hitching his leg around his body pillow and snuggling in closer.

“Five more minutes, Mama.” He called out disjointedly, burying his face into the pillow, or maybe it was hair… had someone let the dog into his room last night?

“Mnn.” The dog grumbled, in a very human-like fashion. Lance furrowed his eyebrows together. Had someone let the toddler into his room last night? Even worse.

Suddenly, in a flurry of limbs and curses, the not-dog and not-toddler bolted upright in bed and sent something flying across the room. It hit the door with a thud that echoed around the room, the very metal-sounding room. Lance cracked open one eye, immediately met with the sight of a shirtless Keith Kogane cursing out the door.

Ah, it was going to be one of those dreams then. “Fuck off!”

With that, Keith collapsed back down into the blankets. He seemed blissfully unaware that Lance was there until he landed directly on top of him, the both of them expressing their discomfort in varying grumbles of pain.

“Ow.” Lance huffed petulantly, debating whether he could get away with still pretending to be asleep for all of two seconds before throwing his arms back around Keith’s body. He snuggled in close, sighing contently.

“L-Lance?” Keith sounded indescribably nervous, like waking up with Lance next to him in bed was a first for him. Good to know that Lance was the only one having pathetic pining dreams, then.

“The one and only.” Lance snarked right back, despite his previous decision to pretend to be asleep. He lifted his head, eyeing the messy mop of hair that was covering Keith’s face in its entirety. He sighed, dropping his head back against Keith’s chest. “Morning to you too, Sleeping Bratty.”

“Guys! Open up!” There was that pounding again, the sound of metal on metal was grating against Lance’s nerves. Keith seemed to put it together much quicker though. He launched out of bed this time, sending Lance toppling backward with an outraged cry.

“Shiro.” Keith said to no one in particular, grabbing his clothes and shoving them on. He tossed Lance his then, or at least tried to. He ended up turning with an armful of clothes only to stand there gaping at where Lance had fallen and simply decided not to get back out. Hair a sleep-mussed mess atop his head, eyes heavily-lidded and unfocused, long naked limbs splayed out in every which direction… Keith resisted the urge to whine.

How dare Shiro ruin this for him.

He tossed the clothes then, purposely making sure they landed on Lance’s face. He couldn’t stand to look at it any longer, it was simply too pretty. “Put your clothes on.”

“I thought you didn’t care if they saw us like this.” Lance responded tiredly, sitting up and beginning to shimmy into his now-dry bodysuit. Keith huffed, peering out the window to where Shiro was pacing outside of Red.

“You’re gonna care if you walk out there in your boxers and get frostbite on your nipples.” Keith snapped at him, feeling antsy and overloaded with so much interaction so quickly after waking up. Lance was none too quiet about voicing his annoyance with the situation, but he did pull his clothes on after that and fell into step beside Keith.

As soon as Red lowered her head and the pair of them stepped out, Shiro engulfed them into a three-person bear hug. Lance squeaked pathetically, Keith struggled to draw a breath in, and Shiro rattled on in nonsensical concerned muttering.

“Shiro.” Keith wheezed eventually, voice just barely there. Thankfully Shiro heard it, then promptly let them both go.

“We were so worried about both of you!” Shiro explained, looking them both over for any sign of injury with his eyes narrowed. After concluding that they were at least in one piece, he gestured around them at the drifts of snow surrounding the lions. “Do you have any idea how cold the surface of this planet was last night?” 

“Yeah, we had our suspicions.” Keith joked dryly, casting a knowing look to Lance. Lance wasn’t nearly as amused, arms wrapped tightly around himself as he shivered. He hadn’t even realized he’d forgotten to put his helmet on.

“Come on, let’s get back before another storm acts up.” Shiro concluded, turning back to his lion. “Hunk has some mugs of hot cocoa waiting for you.”

“Wait, really?!” Lance blurted, suddenly wide awake in an instant. He turned to Keith, smiling so wide and goofily that Keith found himself waking up faster than anticipated as well just so he could appreciate that expression fully. 

Lance nudged him with his elbow repeatedly, suddenly full of energy. “Race you back?”

\--

The race ended in an unspoken draw. Keith made it back to the castle minutes ahead of Lance, but rather than dashing ahead to reach the kitchen finish line as quickly as possible, he waited until Lance arrived in his lion. Lance dashed out, clearly ready to make a run for it to try and beat Keith despite how far he was lagging behind, when he noticed that Keith was right there leaning against Red’s paw.

Lance slowed to a stop, the both of them exchanging a fond look before falling into step beside each other. They didn’t speak another word about the race, instead taking their time to walk there together, like they weren’t quite ready to part yet.

“I was so worried we weren’t gonna make it back, I’m almost glad to see all this shit.” Keith said, looking around the hall they were walking down and  _ almost _ appreciating all the new additions to the decoration collection. Lance hummed thoughtfully, looking around them as well.

“Mm, same.” Lance concluded, eyes lighting up as the door to the kitchen came into view. Keith watched as he sped up, subconsciously giving in to his eagerness to get to the food as quickly as possible. Keith did his best to keep step with him, but he couldn’t fight the urge to dig his heels in and grab Lance, force them to draw out the moment just a little bit longer. He’d missed the others, obviously, but after all they’d just experienced together… Keith wasn’t quite ready to put it behind them.

“Hey, um, Lance?” Keith spoke softly, uncertain if he even wanted to really. Lance paused all the same though, looking back at him with that same dazzling, patient smile even though Keith was keeping him from going ahead.

“Yeah?” Lance prompted, eyes boring into Keith’s. Meanwhile, Keith was fidgeting under the attention, regretting ever opening his big, gay mouth. Were they really at the point for a confession? Sure, they’d been spending a lot of time together lately and Lance flirted with him enough that it was hard to convince himself the attraction was one-sided, but this was asking for something. The confirmation, the commitment, who knew if Lance wanted that the same way he did?

Keith curled his hands into fists, trying to steel his nerves.

“About what happened out there…”

“Keith, don’t make it weirder than it has to be.” Lance laughed, reaching up to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder. Keith’s face fell, realizing he’d managed to muck it up before saying what he’d wanted to in the first place. He groaned inwardly, leaning into Lance’s comforting touch all the same. “We were just trying to survive, you don’t have to explain yourself. It wasn’t weird for me if it wasn’t weird for you.”

“Right.” Keith breathed, turning toward the kitchen. “That’s all I wanted.”

“Okay.” Lance said, trying to hide his emotions as best he could. In reality, he wasn’t nearly calm enough to be offering up comforting words to Keith, his heart hammering away in his chest. He hadn’t expected Keith to bring it up, the fact that they’d spent the entire night cuddled into each other, skin to skin. 

Truth was, a feeble part of Lance had hoped that maybe it wasn’t weird enough for them to comment on. He’d been hoping for a while now that their relationship was naturally developing behind the scenes despite the fact they never addressed it out loud. He thought that maybe… they could cuddle like that without needing to dismiss whatever had brought it on. He’d wished more than anything that they could do it again.

“Hot cocoa in a steamy mug, come and get it!” Hunk shouted, no doubt hearing their voices just outside the door to the kitchen. Lance forced a smile, noticing that Keith had gone oddly quiet. 

Was he really that off-put by the whole cuddling thing? Lance had been starting to think that maybe they were on the same page, but perhaps he’d just have to keep waiting. Keith would get there someday, he had more than enough patience to wait until what they wanted was the same.

They walked into the kitchen side-by-side, senses immediately overloaded with the rows of holiday baked goods scattered over every surface. Hunk had really outdone himself, the baking god that he was. Lance’s mouth watered, momentarily forgetting the awkwardness between them as he started to tug excitedly on Keith’s sleeve. 

He moved to take a step forward, planning on dragging Keith with him, when a voice called out to them from the other side of the room.

“Keith! Lance!” Pidge shouted, jumping up from their seat by the counter to dash toward them. Lance smirked, expecting to be wrapped up in a classic worried-gremlin smothering hug. He even kneeled down a bit, getting closer to Pidge’s height.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about us.” Lance dismissed, biting back a smile. “We’re fine, so don’t go freaking out over n-”

“Look up.” Pidge demanded, coming to a stop in front of them. Hunk and Matt looked up from their game of alien cards on the counter, eyes widening with recognition as they looked above Lance and Keith’s heads.

Despite how offended he was by the less than lackluster greeting, Lance’s curiosity got the better of him nearly immediately. He turned his head back, staring in confusion toward the ceiling. Sure enough, there was something hanging above them. For a terrifying moment, he figured it might be a giant space spider that’d snuck onto the ship, but then...

“Huh?” Lance hummed in confusion, eyes narrowed to examine it more critically as Keith finally caved and looked up. Lance realized the moment Keith’s gaze fell on it exactly what was happening. Lance wasn’t sure if he’d paled unhealthily or was blushing red as Keith’s cropped jacket. “No.”

“You have to!” Pidge pleaded with them, stepping closer and hanging off of Lance’s shoulders. Lance had half a mind to shove them away, but instead he pulled them closer still into a hug. Evil little genius or not, Lance loved his friends and for a terrifying moment yesterday he hadn’t been sure if he’d ever see them again.

Pidge didn’t acknowledge it out loud, but they seemed to understand as they begrudgingly gave in to the smothering. Hunk shifted closer too, stepping behind Keith and Lance to throw an arm around each of their shoulders. 

“They’re right, guys.” Matt interrupted the moment from the sidelines, a smirk splayed across his lips that read nothing but trouble. “You got caught under the mistletoe together, you have to kiss.”

“Says who?” Keith rebutted before Lance could even open his mouth, sounding petulant. Lance couldn’t help but smile to himself, gently pushing Pidge away to turn to the cute red paladin. He was blushing so bright, red cheeks and eyes so glaring that Lance was surprised they hadn’t gone red with anger as well.

Lance would fight right alongside him to make sure they got out of this if Keith didn’t want anything to do with it. God, if it wasn’t a guilty pleasure to watch a flustered Keith try and squirm out from under the scrutiny of their friends. He kept glancing toward Lance, a pleading little look asking for backup, the pout to his lips making Lance want nothing more than for the circumstances to be different.

“Yeah, who made you the Christmas authority?” Lance argued, stepping closer to Keith and putting a protective arm around his waist. He could wait, he’d waited this long.

Keith was so embarrassed and hot all over that he felt like he could melt into the floor, thought that maybe that might be the best option for him right about now. Everyone in the room was staring at him and Lance, thinking about them kissing. Who decided to play such a cruel joke on him just after his confession going sideways? It wasn’t fair at all.

And Lance didn’t look nearly as uneasy as he should have, especially if he’d had a problem with their innocent cuddling from the night before. It didn’t make sense, how could Lance shut down Keith the moment he tried to bring up the cuddling and then stand there with a pokerface at the discussion of them kissing? 

Maybe Keith had misunderstood, that was a strong possibility. It didn’t relieve him like it should have though, not when it couldn’t get him out of the current situation.

“No one, but if I had to kiss Slav on the beak when we walked under it together last night, then you’re suffering through it too.” Shiro commented tiredly, slipping through the door past them and making a beeline straight for the caffeine. He managed to keep a straight face as the rest of the room burst into laughter at the memory and the thought of it, indifferently sipping his coffee as the others wheezed at the thought of Shiro and Slav locking not-lips.

The laughter only died down slightly when Allura slipped into the room, resting her hands caringly on Keith and Lance’s backs as she came to a stop between them. She paused then, looking above her head with a gleeful squeal.

“Oh, did we catch another pair?!” Allura asked, glancing around the room to gauge everyone’s reactions to the information. She realized rather quickly that everyone else was already aware, that there was some kind of hold-up. Understanding settled in, a twinge of sympathy showing in her features as she looked between Keith and Lance. 

She sighed, walking over to wear Shiro was standing behind the counter. “Pidge, I don’t know if this is a good idea, we don’t want to compromise the team in any way-”

“Nonsense.” Pidge deadpanned immediately, dismissing the princess’s caution indifferently. They turned back to their victims, making an impatient hand-gesture to urge them along. “Come on, boys, we don’t have all day. Pucker up.”

Lance sighed reluctantly, turning to Keith properly in an attempt to gauge his reaction. The moment their eyes met, Keith’s widened almost comically and then promptly fluttered shut. He stood stock still, save for the shaking in his hands and pursing of his lips. Lance stifled a laugh, wondering what Keith thought of him if he was expecting Lance to just storm ahead with or without making sure Keith actually wanted this.

Instead, he stepped closer and cupped Keith’s face between his hands, blocking him from everyone else’s view. He wanted this Keith all to himself, selfish or not. He wanted to admit every inch of this flustered, submissive mess to his memory. After all, he only had a second to appreciate it before the desire to comfort Keith grew too strong.

“I hate Christmas.” Lance whispered to him, bringing their faces closer together. Keith cracked his eyes open, peering curiously back at Lance. There was no doubt in Lance’s mind that he looked like just as much of a starstruck idiot as he was, but he couldn’t find it within himself to care when he had Keith in his arms like this.

“Ditto.” Keith mumbled, a small smile playing at his lips. Lance grinned back at him, wide and uninhibited. 

“Hey?” Lance whispered, stroking his thumb along Keith’s cheekbone. He could hear Pidge starting to complain in the background, no doubt about to demand that they do it for everyone to see or else it didn’t count. Lance ignored that, focusing solely on Keith’s face inches from his. God, this was cruel, he wanted to kiss him so badly.

“Yeah?” Keith responded, quirking an eyebrow. 

“Wanna make a run for it?” Lance asked, flashing a smirk. Keith lit up, instantly coming back to himself with a hurried nod. 

“Yeah.”

“Go!” Lance shouted, grabbing Keith’s hand and hauling ass out of the room as fast as his long legs could carry him. Immediately, the team erupted into annoyed groans behind them, he could even hear the heavy footsteps of someone chasing after them. He was faster though, even if it left Keith stumbling and falling into his back for support each time Lance would move faster than he could keep up with.

They darted down the hallway and around as many corners as they could, eventually finding their way into a back corner of a long corridor in the castle. They stepped into the small reading room that no one ever used except maybe Coran, heaving to catch their breaths.

“I can’t believe we just had a near death experience and all they care about is us kissing!” Lance cried out, though he noticed that he sounded more amused than offended. Keith laughed breathlessly next to him, shaking his hair out of his face as he straightened up.

“How long do you think we have to hide out here before they let it go?”

“It could be hours, could be years.” Lance stated conversationally, skimming his fingers over the spines of all the books lining the shelves. They were mostly research-related, nothing he cared to read about. A couple caught his eye eventually, ones about legends in alien cultures. Alien cryptids, mayhaps? Keith would like that.

Speaking of Keith, Lance turned back to his partner in crime. He found Keith tentatively settled on the edge of the couch, his gaze faraway as he stared into the flames of the fire. Lance smiled, stepping over a pile of loose books and settling next to Keith. “You’d better make yourself comfortable.”

Keith hardly registered the weight of a person sinking down onto the couch next to him. Now that he finally had a chance to think, he couldn’t stop the thoughts from ambushing him. He’d been so very close to kissing Lance, their lips inches apart after years of trying to bridge the distance between them. God, he was an idiot, he should have grabbed the front of Lance’s shirt and pulled him into a bruising embrace like he’d so badly wanted to.

He could still feel Lance’s fingers brushing along the sides of his face, soft and caring. It was everything he’d wanted for so long and somehow still not quite enough. 

Keith blinked, tuning back in to reality as Lance poked him none-too-gently in the side of the face.

“Come on, at least you have good company?” Lance tried, clearly misinterpreting his quiet state for being displeased with the situation. Keith was displeased with himself more than anything, already wishing he could turn back time.

Lance huffed, gesturing toward the faux fireplace in front of them. “There’s a fireplace too, I’m sure that’s satisfying your inner pyromaniac.”

“Oh yeah, you bet.” Keith muttered, trying not to let his breath stutter as he watched Lance’s face break out into a grin at the sound of his voice. He must have been really worried that he’d crossed a line or something. 

Keith sighed, leaning back into the cushions and holding up an arm. Lance wordlessly slipped under it, resting his head on Keith’s shoulder almost hesitantly. This was a little different than how they’d cuddled before, that’d always been out of necessity because Lance needed comforting or they needed to share heat. This was simply self-indulgent, but neither of them commented on that.

Instead, Keith filled the silence by softly humming into Lance’s hair. “You have my undivided attention, I’m sure that’s satisfying your desire to be the center of attention at all times.”

“Oh, Keith, I’ve never been more satisfied in my life.” Lance groaned lavisciously, yelping when Keith immediately tightened his hand around a fistful of Lance’s hair in reprimand. No way was he going to sit in a dimly-lit room with Lance’s obnoxious fake-moaning in his ear, he’d take the mistletoe over that any day.

“You’re terrible.” Keith sighed, relaxing when another few seconds passed without incident. Lance hummed thoughtfully, as if considering the accusation.

“Only for you.” He concluded, reaching out to the cushion next to him and picking up a book. He placed it on Keith’s lap, looking hopefully up at him through his lashes. “Read it to me?”

“Who do you think I am?” Keith grumbled, already flipping open the book with his free hand. Lance grinned in satisfaction, already knowing that he’d gotten his way. “Get comfortable, nuisance.”

\--

Lance wasn’t entirely sure when they’d switched positions, or when he’d fallen asleep, but he awoke lying lengthwise across the couch on top of Keith. He knew this because he could feel the weight of another person’s legs between his, could hear the steady breathing just above his head, and eventually noticed the rise and fall of a chest underneath his own.

“Lance?” Keith whispered, gently coaxing Lance further awake with a hand smoothing over his hair and pushing it back. Lance grumbled all the same, never one to like his sleep being interrupted, no matter how handsome the interrupter happened to be. He squirmed, turning away from Keith’s touch.

That explained why he’d woken so prematurely from arguably the best sleep of his life, it was all dumb Keith’s fault. Lance was determined to fall back asleep right here and now just to spite him.

Keith chuckled lowly, patting him on the back. “I’m thinking the coast is probably clear to head back to our rooms, save yourself the neck cramp of sleeping here all night.”

That was just the wake up call Lance needed, the reminder that Keith probably wasn’t nearly as comfortable settled here as he was. Not everyone found physical contact so comforting, there was a possibility that Keith had been sitting there wide awake this entire time, looking for an out to get out of the situation. Lance sighed before he could stop himself, slowly sitting up.

He stared down at Keith, biting his lip. Keith’s expression was unreadable.

“Right.” He concluded, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch and jumping to his feet. He stretched his arms lazily above his head, immediately starting toward the door in his sleep-addled state. He didn’t even think twice about leaving Keith behind before he heard the echo of footsteps behind him, Keith rushing to catch up.

Lance hesitated then, knowing it would only make the longing in his chest worse to have Keith walk him back to his room. How could he say no to it, though? Besides, Keith seemed pretty determined to stick right next to his side the whole way back.

They reached Keith’s door first, but wordlessly walked past it and straight to Lance’s. Lance hesitated with his hand above the scanner, turning back to Keith despite how nervous he felt. He held his hands behind his back, smiling sweetly.

“Well, goodnight.” Lance chirped, reaching out to clap Keith on the shoulder. They exchanged an awkwardly drawn-out look, the emotions on Keith’s face unreadable. He smiled then, turning away before Lance could get a good read on what he was thinking.

“Yeah, goodnight.” Keith responded belatedly, disappearing down the hall and into his room. Lance leaned against his door curiously, waiting a few seconds before turning and reluctantly placing his hand on the scanner. The doors had only just slid open when another noise down the hall had Lance turning back, seeing Keith come stumbling out of his room at full speeds.

At least he seemed surprised to see Lance was still lingering in the hall. His eyes widened, looking indescribably relieved and anxious both at the same time. “Lance?”

“What?” Lance questioned, leaning against his door as Keith walked timidly up to him. He was holding something behind his back, Lance couldn’t help but notice. That was unnerving in itself, considering how many times he’d seen Keith saunter up to enemies concealing a sword or two. Was he about to be stabbed? 

“So, I was thinking.” Keith explained, drawing out the words like he was stalling for time to choose the right ones. Lance’s own worries were placed secondary to comforting Keith through his in an instant, though he couldn’t deny that he felt better himself as he reached up and playfully messed up Keith’s hair.

“Dangerous.” Lance commented, lifting an eyebrow curiously.

Keith chuckled, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. It was the most Lance had ever seen him fidget, usually knowing Keith as someone stoic and concentrated. His thoughts seemed so jumbled now, though. Lance wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Keith looked up suddenly, offering up a thin little smile that showed just how uncertain he was.

“Maybe we don’t have to hate Christmas?” Keith suggested, messing with his hands behind his back before finally bringing one forward to grab one of Lance’s. Lance paused, staring down to watch as Keith threaded their fingers. “I don’t exactly have a lot to go off of, but I don’t know that I can hate something that makes everyone else smile so much. And I really, really like spending time with you like we have been lately. It’s gotten to the point that it’s not avoiding the festivities as much as it is celebrating it in our own little way, you know? Our own holiday.”

“Keith.” Lance breathed, chest feeling suddenly heavy. He blinked, holding himself back for all of ten seconds in an effort to compose himself, before finally giving in and throwing his arms around Keith. He hugged him close, laughing wetly as he buried his face in Keith’s neck. “I really, really like spending time with you too.”

“We don’t have to call it Christmas if that’s too much for you, we can call it Lancemas for all I care.” Keith continued, gaining confidence now with the positive reaction. “I want you to be able to enjoy this like I am and look back on it as some of your best memories too, right next to the ones with your family.”

“Don’t tell the others, but I think you’ve taught me more about holiday spirit than any of them have with the celebration.” Lance mumbled, lifting his head slowly. Their eyes locked at the close proximity and Keith inhaled sharply, suddenly bringing his other hand around from behind his back.

“It’s after midnight.” He stated plainly, holding out a snow globe to Lance. “Uh, Merry Christmas.”

Lance stared at the gift in utter confusion for a good few seconds, wondering what had brought Keith to believe he’d want a decoration of all things. Hell, he could have just looked in Pidge’s direction and they would have given him twenty of the damn things. Sure, he loved it and planned to cherish it because it was a gift from Keith, who never gave anyone anything but his time… but still.

Lance lifted it up, expecting to see a snowman inside or something of the like. Instead, he came face to face with a few slanted buildings that looked oddly familiar. He blinked, eyes darting to the base of the globe which was decorated like a colorful beach. His eyes widened as he smoothed his thumb over the fine print at the base.

“Varadero Beach.” He read aloud, eyes suddenly brimming with the tears he’d somehow managed to hold back before. It was a tacky, obnoxious souvenir that he would have found at any manner of the corner shops or stands back in his hometown. It was the sort of thing he laughed at as a teenager and now here he was in tears over it because he suddenly understood why they meant so much to the travelers that flocked to the stands.

He was a traveler now, holding his breath until the moment he got to go back to his favorite destination.

He whimpered, looking up at Keith like the blubbering mess he was. “When did you get this? Where?”

“Years ago at an Earth souvenir shop, just after we’d made it into space.” Keith explained, stepping closer to Lance and taking the globe out of his hands. He shook it, watching the nonsensical coating of snow come floating back down to cover the buildings and sand. It never snowed in Cuba, it didn’t make any sense, and yet Lance didn’t care in the slightest. “You kinda hated me back then, though. There was never a right time to give it to you.”

“I never hated you.” Lance huffed, looking at Keith in confusion. Keith froze, looking back at him with a mirrored expression.

“No?” Keith laughed, the uncertainty in that one word so tangible that it hurt. In that moment, Lance realized two very important things. One; he was an idiot. Two; he was going to spend the rest of his life making sure Keith knew exactly where he stood in this relationship, even if it meant using words to talk it out the hard way.

Lance shook his head, clutching the snowglobe to his chest as he reached up to cup Keith’s jaw. Keith blushed, eyes averting to the floor. “You could have fooled me.”

“Keith.” Lance spoke gently, leaning closer as his words failed him for the thousandth time. There weren’t words that could explain it fast enough, their weren’t words that could patch things up between them in the way Lance needed to. He bit his lip, watching as Keith picked up on his tense state and tried to frantically backtrack to their lighthearted mood.

“You don’t have to explain, I-” Keith didn’t get a chance to finish before Lance made up his mind. The fear of rejection still hanging heavy over his head like a rain cloud, Lance leapt forward in a desperate bid to outrun it. He ran start into Keith, with his lips, pressed to Keith’s open mouth. 

Lance closed his eyes, pressing close to Keith until the only thing between them was the snowglobe, their lips beginning to move in tandem. It was chaste as far as kisses went, they were both trembling like leaves caught in a windstorm, so terrified of messing it up. 

When they finally broke apart, Keith’s lips shone with a thin sheen of saliva and Lance’s heart was the only thing he could hear. Keith blinked slowly, staring at Lance with realization after realization flickering across his features. Oh god, it was all clicking into place now, Lance had really just laid it all on the line this time. 

Keith wasn’t smiling. Why wasn’t he smiling? Was he that surprised? Did he not want this?

“M-Mistletoe.” Lance blurted, throwing himself backwards and flattening his body against his door. His hand flew across the wall, frantically hitting it until the scanner finally registered his palm. He stumbled backward into his room, feeling more frazzled than he ever had in his life.

Lance had kissed him. Keith wasn’t entirely computing the turn of events that’d just happened. One second he was expecting everything to get tense the way it always did when their past rivalry was brought up, then the next their were lips pressed to his. Hesitant and tentative, but oh so soft and wanting. Lance wanted him.

Keith couldn’t believe it. He had no idea how to react to having that information sprung on him so suddenly. He tried to piece his mind back together, but it was difficult when Lance was so close to him, when he could literally taste Lance on his tongue.

And then Lance wasn’t close to him anymore, instead he was frantically babbling nonsense and disappearing into the darkness of the room behind him. Keith stood there stupidly, bringing a hand up to brush his fingertips over his lips in awe. 

“What?” He blurted, realizing that Lance had actually said something while breaking away. Lance hovered just inside his room, blushing so brightly that Keith could make it out even in the shadows of the unlit room.

“Up there!” Lance shouted, pointing toward the ceiling. He stumbled backward then, the doors starting to slide closed behind him. “Okay, gotta go, bye!”

Keith looked up as the doors clicked closed. Sure enough, there was an obnoxious amount of mistletoe strung up on the ceiling, covering the majority of the hallway between their two doors. It had to have been Pidge’s attempt at revenge while they were hiding. 

Still, Lance hadn’t kissed him earlier under the mistletoe, and surely he would have pointed it out if he’d noticed this mistletoe while they were talking… He knew there was more to it than some dumb plant, he’d felt the emotion coursing through Lance while they kissed for those few fleeting moments. It _ meant  _ something, he was sure of it.

Keith stepped closer to the door, settling his hand on it. He dropped his head, forehead smacking against the metal with a dull thud.

“Lance.” He spoke carefully, deciding to be as plain as possible with his words. “I’m, uh… sorry. I didn’t expect you to do that, you caught me off-guard. I should have said something as soon as it happened, I didn’t mean to scare you off. I liked it though, Lance. I really, really liked it. I want to do it again sometime. I hope that’s okay?”

He waited a total of five minutes before reluctantly going back to his room, wondering what this meant for their friendship.

\--

“Keith! Wake up!”

“What’s wrong? Emergency?” Keith questioned, rolling out of bed and darting toward the door with cat-like reflexes. He slammed his hand against the scanner, panting as the doors slid open to reveal a pajama-clad Pidge in front of him.

He blinked.

“Present time!” Pidge announced, grabbing onto his arm and digging their nails in far enough that he couldn’t break away from their grip. He frowned, allowing himself to be dragged across the castle and into their main lounge. Most of their team was already there, including Slav and Shay. 

He took a seat next to Matt, looking at the eager expressions on everyone’s faces as they settled in around the tree. He noticed that Pidge was the only one not smiling almost immediately. They were scowling in Hunk’s direction, heaving a deep sigh. “Hunk, where’s Lance?”

“He’s refusing to leave his room.” Hunk explained forlornly, casting a longing glance toward the door like he was still holding on to the hope Lance would waltz in. “Trust me, if there was a way to get him out, I would have thought of it.”

“Aw man, it’s not the same without everyone here.” Pidge frowned, looking genuinely sad. It was rare that they showed emotion that openly, usually one to bottle it up to keep spirits high. They walked over and sat on the other side of Matt, leaning into their brother’s side. 

“I promised we’d give him space though, if that’s what he wants.” Hunk mumbled, looking equally as disjointed about not having his best friend there with them for the experience. He sat down next to Shay, reaching over to hold his girlfriend’s hand.

Keith’s attention drifted, to where Shiro was sitting with Slav wrapped around his shoulders. He had a mug pressed to his lips and an obnoxious Christmas hat on his head, but from his eyes alone Keith could tell that he wasn’t happy about the missing teammate either. It wasn’t a celebration without everyone that was supposed to be here.

Even Coran was leaning suspiciously close to the door, watching for any sign of stragglers.

“There’s always next year.” Allura suggested brightly, clapping her hands together. She turned to the tree, gesturing wildly to the presents beneath. Her poorly-contained excitement for the new experience helped to life the spirits of everyone else in the room slightly. “Shall we start unwrapping now?”

Keith stared off into space guiltily the entire time, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes even as they handed him presents and excitedly chattered about all manner of things around the room. He simply sat there, curled in on himself, feeling like he was somehow missing a vital part of himself. Maybe the others were onto something with that recurring joke about how he and Lance were two halves of the same person.

The events of the night before had come back to him the moment he sat down near the tree, mind drifting to mistletoe and inevitably the feeling of Lance’s soft lips moving tentatively against his own. It was unbearable, partly because he knew he was the reason Lance wasn’t here now, but mostly because he wanted nothing more than to ditch out on the festivities and go find what mattered most to him. He had to make sure that things were alright between them, that Lance understood nothing had to change if he didn’t really want it to.

“Well, that’s the last one under the tree.” Pidge announced sadly, pointedly ignoring the pile of gifts for Lance that had gone untouched. They turned away, looking around the room at all their friends buried in piles of new belongings. “That concludes gift-giving for this year!”

Everyone started to gather their things, no doubt planning on departing back to their rooms to store it all away. Keith was the first to get to his feet, an armful of stuff weighing him down as he debated the quickest route back to Lance’s room. He turned and prepared to bolt, only to freeze when a voice rang out through the room.

“Wait!” Lance called, barreling into the room. Keith’s eyes widened and he fell back onto the couch, not even daring to hope that maybe things were going to go back to normal that easily.

Lance marched into the room, holding something under the edge of his jacket. He found Keith easily enough despite the latter’s best effort to blend in with the cushions on the couch. He kneeled in front of Keith, looking determined as he slowly pulled a neatly-wrapped gift from beneath his jacket. He held it out to Keith, exhaling loudly. “This is for you.”

“That’s not fair.” Allura pointed out, looking around the room to see if anyone else felt the same. “I was under the impression each of us had to give everyone a gift and not show favoritism, so we were all equal-”

“Shh.” Pidge interrupted, shoving a hand haphazardly over Allura’s mouth. 

“I’ll get the rest of you guys gifts a little later.” Lance laughed dismissively, never once taking his eyes off of Keith in front of him. Keith was distracted entirely, staring at the present that’d been shoved into his hands with all the impatience of a toddler.

Lance pinched his thigh, leaning into his strange line of vision. He blinked up at Keith, a lopsided smile forming on his face at whatever expression he saw there. “Open it up.”

If he didn’t know what to do with the present, then he knew how to say no to Lance’s pleading face even less. He ripped the paper away, staring curiously at the piece of knitted red cloth in front of him. He picked it up, eyes widening with realization as he registered what he was holding. A completely impractical pair of knitted gloves, these ones with attached fingers.

“Lance.” He laughed, eyes crinkling up at the corners to the point his vision was obstructed. Or maybe that was the tears, come to think of it. When did he start crying? When did he start thinking it was acceptable to cry in front of a room full of people?

Lance shifted around, clearly uneasy about the reaction until he got explicit confirmation that Keith actually liked them.

“I know they’re not as cool or edgy as your last ones, you can’t wear them all the time like a weirdo because your hands will sweat to hell and back, but I was thinking they’re good for snowy places or if your hands are just really cold for no reason and-”

“Shut-up.” Keith huffed, kicking his foot out and driving his bare toes into Lance’s stomach. Lance gave a startled grunt, before immediately bouncing back and collapsing into Keith’s lap. He was grinning though, on the verge of laughing as he stared lovingly up at Keith. 

Keith slid one of the gloves onto his hand, holding it up to admire. “I love them.”

“Yeah?” Lance prompted, shifting even closer. Keith nodded, patting his lap until Lance finally caved and crawled up to sit on him. They faced each other, grinning like fools as it clicked what this meant. If Lance had been up all night trying to finish this gift, that must have been the reason he hadn’t come out of his room... meaning, the kiss last night hadn’t driven them apart.

They were both just flustered and treading in uncertain waters, but definitely eager to be there. They hadn’t ruined anything, it was just starting. 

“Whew, that was touching.” Pidge commented, pretending to wipe a tear from their eye. They grinned, using the same finger to point above Lance and Keith’s heads. “Not to ruin the moment, but you two just so happen to be sitting under a little sprig of mistle-”

Keith didn’t even hesitate this time, he knew what he wanted and he finally knew that Lance wanted the same from him. He grabbed the front of Lance’s robe, gripping it tight as he yanked the man in his lap forward. Lance yelped, though he immediately relaxed as Keith pressed their mouths together in a kiss that wasn’t nearly as reserved as their last.

They were making up for years of lost time, after all. They’d been dancing around this for long enough that Keith had imagined it happening a million different times, a million different ways. He’d grip Lance’s shirt to keep him close even as his other hand drifted up, up,  _ up _ ; into Lance’s soft messy hair. He’d tug at the brown locks, licking his way into the loud mouth that had starred in almost every nightmare and fantasy he’d ever had. Then he’d lose himself, kissing Lance desperately and hungrily, like he might never get the chance to again.

Sure, he’d always imagined this happening on the battlefield during their last moments alive so he didn’t have to take his feelings to the grave with him, so it was a little bit more ragged and desperate than it needed to be… but Keith quickly decided he didn’t care, and that he liked this scenario a lot more than how he’d always imagined it to go.

For a long time, he hadn’t even allowed himself to dream that Lance might ever reciprocate his feelings.

Lance decided almost immediately that he liked it, resisting the urge to smile into the kiss as Keith kept pulling him closer and closer still, like every inch between them was torture. It might as well have been with how long they’d both been wanting to close the distance.

For once in their entire goddamn life, Pidge was rendered speechless before they finished saying what they had to say. Their jaw snapped shut, the entire room falling into an awed silence.

And when Lance pulled back to let out a bubbly laugh, grinning like he’d won the greatest prize in the world, Keith fell back into the cushions with an awestruck slack-jawed gape on his face. 

“Merry Christmas, Keith.” Lance said it like it was a promise of some sort, and Keith wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, only that he wanted everything to do with it. He leaned closer still, brushing his lips against Lance’s again, much softer this time so he could taste the smile in the kiss.

“Merry Christmas, Lance.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what happened here, it was literally JUST supposed to be the mistletoe scene at the end. Why do I always do the Most? Will I ever Stop? Tune in next fic to find out.
> 
> Here are my social medias, if you wanna slide me a subtle comment I'll gobble it Right up. 
> 
> twitter - https://twitter.com/MelancholyMango
> 
> tumblr - melancholymango.tumblr.com
> 
> wattpad - https://www.wattpad.com/user/MelancholyMango
> 
>  
> 
> OH! Happy holidays to everyone out there reading this!!


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